Litchfield High
by Tripletimesteps
Summary: Piper Chapman sets foot in a brand new school, after being moved by her mother in senior year. Hoping to make new friends, she's shocked at the tribal culture at Litchfield, and even more shocked when a familiar face resurfaces, reminding her that she can't escape her past...
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"I can't believe you're going to a different school." Polly Harper said to her best friend, Piper. They were sitting outside Piper's house, drinking lemonade and reminiscing about their time together.

"I know." Piper responded. "We've been together since like, what – kindergarten? It's crazy that tomorrow will be the first time I'm in school without you."

"Your mum picked a pretty weird time for you to leave." Polly remarked. "I mean, we're going into 12th grade. Senior year is hard, and it's going to be harder now that you're transferring schools."

"Don't remind me of that." Piper said dejectedly. "My mum wanted me to move because apparently Litchfield is a 'better school', which I strongly doubt, looking at the sort of people who go there. I think she was just annoyed that I had a fling with Alex Vause. She thinks Alex is a bad influence, but I thought I'd pleased her now that I'm with Larry. Guess not."

"Is Larry walking you to the bus stop tomorrow?" Polly asked. "That's nice of him, considering its not on the route to his and my school."

"Yeah," Said Piper. "Look, I don't want to think about moving schools any more than I have to. Let's watch a movie, and we can order pizza."

"Kind of like the last supper." Polly laughed.

The two friends laughed and chatted for the rest of the evening, until Polly had to go home, after all, it was the first day of the new school year tomorrow. That night, Piper lay on her bed, thinking about Litchfield High. It was single sex – great – her mom didn't like the idea of her dating girls, so how was sending her to and all-girls school going to help with that? And judging by some of the reviews on the school's website, it seemed like a bit of a shithole. And they all had to wear uniforms, ugly beige ones. Great. She just knew she was going to hate this school.

Piper's alarm loudly rang in her ears as she fumbled for her phone, trying to turn off the infernal racket. Then she remembered that it was her first day at Litchfield, and it would look kind of awful if she was late on the first day. Even if the school sounded rubbish, she didn't want to make a bad impression. She wearily plodded over to her ensuite bathroom and turned on the shower, luxuriating under the hot water. She'd always loved the feeling of getting clean, and she didn't mind showering in the morning at all. When she was finished, she grabbed herself a granola bar to munch, and then did her makeup and hair and got dressed in the ugly uniform.

Then she heard the doorbell ring, and opened the door to see Larry, her boyfriend of six months, standing there.

"Hey Pipes," he said brightly. "You ready for your first day at Lesbian High?"

"It's _Litchfield_ " she corrected him playfully. "And surely if it was really some sort of lesbian school you'd be more worried, especially as I used to think I was a lesbian."

"Oh yeah, when you dated Alex Vause." Larry remembered, closing the front door of Piper's house. "God that girl was a mess, and I heard she does drugs too."

Piper swallowed, trying not to remember the year that she had dated Alex for. It was true, Alex did do drugs, and she had persuaded Piper to try them. Just once though, and Piper didn't like it, so Alex hadn't forced her to take them again, so surely it didn't really count.

"Yeah… I don't know what I was thinking, I must have been crazy confused." Piper shrugged. The couple continued to chat amicably as they walked to the bus stop, Piper frequently checking her new schoolbag to see if she had everything she needed. In what felt like no time at all, the two had reached the bus stop.

"Bye Pipes, I hope your day is great." Larry said, as Piper pulled him into a kiss. The two began to kiss passionately, when they were interrupted by a Hispanic girl standing next to them.

"Gross." She muttered, sounding annoyed. "My first day and the first thing I see is some random chick making out."

"Oh – sorry." Piper replied. "Bye Larry, I'll phone you tonight."

As Larry walked off, Piper turned to the girl, who was standing with her arms folded, looking like she'd rather be anywhere else than at this bus stop.

"Like I said, I'm sorry for before." Piper said to her. "I'm Piper Chapman, and I'm new too."

"Whatever." The girl replied flippantly. "I'm Daya, but don't go thinking we'll be friends or anything – I already know a bunch of people at Litchfield, and my mom teaches there as well."

"Oh, alright then." Piper turned away from Daya as the battered school bus turned up, with the Litchfield logo printed on the side. She climbed on to the bus, and was taken aback to see a tiny girl, who didn't look a day past fifteen, sitting at the wheel. The girl was wearing Litchfield uniform, and had on bright red lipstick, with her hair in pin curls and huge sunglasses resting on her head.

"Um, hey." Piper said, handing over the fare to the girl. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but how old are you? And how do they let a student drive the school bus?"

"Now, don't start worrying, I'm seventeen, I got my licence and everything. And the first thing you gotta know about this school is that the pupils do a lot more than the teachers, they're all lazy shits. Plus, colleges like it that I do something 'different', ya know, service to the school and everything. I've been doing it since junior year, and its actually pretty fun." The petite girl replied, with perhaps the strangest accent Piper had ever heard, a curious mix of Boston and Brooklyn and everything in between. Piper had never heard anything quite like it.

"Oh, cool," Piper replied, still a little in shock. This was quite weird. "I'm Piper Chapman, it's my first day at Litchfield, and I'm seventeen too."

"I'm Lorna Morello," the girl said. "So you'll be in my year then. I'll show you around then, I gotta feeling that you'll fit in with my crowd, right."

"Sure!" Piper said happily. This girl seemed so much more cheerful and friendly than the moody Daya.

Piper made her way down the bus, only to find that most of the seats were already taken, and in fact, there were no single seats anymore. Sighing, she sat down in a seat next to a tall girl with black hair scraped into a ponytail.

"Um, hi." Piper said to her, attempting to make conversation. "I'm Piper, I'm new here."

"I'm Janae Watson. Track captain. You run? We're looking for people to join the team this year." Said the girl.

"Um, yeah, I like anything to do with fitness." Piper said.

"Well, you'd better be good at track if you want to try out, it's real competitive." Janae replied, looking disinterested in Piper and putting in her headphones.

 _Great,_ Piper thought. _Does everyone here hate me already, except that Lorna girl? I hope she does show me around, at this rate it doesn't look like I'll be making many friends on my own._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

If there was one thing Piper learned on the bus ride, it was that Lorna loved to talk, specifically about her boyfriend Christopher. Several times Piper had almost leapt out of her seat and grabbed the wheel herself, when Lorna became distracted by the huge stack of magazines piled up next to her seat, and excitedly flicked through them at every stop sign the bus encountered. She frequently asked people on their bus for their opinions on wedding dresses, and animatedly told Piper all about the wedding that they were planning, which according to Lorna, would take place the minute the two left high school, because,

"Christopher goes to a different school, ya see." Lorna said. "So it's hard for us to see each other, but I just know after this year we're gonna get married and go to college together."

"Mmm," Piper said, only half listening. She knew she loved Larry, but all this talk of marriage and weddings seemed bizarre to her, after all they were only seventeen – surely much too young to think about that. But Lorna didn't seem to think so, and continued to chatter happily about her boyfriend until the bus pulled up outside the school. Oh well, Lorna seemed sweet, compared to the other people she had met so far, and it was cute to hear about her relationship. She kind of wished she and Larry had a relationship like that, but she didn't have time to dwell on her thoughts as she left the bus and took in her surroundings.

"Alright, let's go." Lorna said brightly, tossing the keys into her pocket and marching towards the school. Piper followed behind her, along with some other students, who she assumed were all new, seeing as most of the girls had ran off the bus into groups, including Janae, the track captain whom she had sat next to. It was then that she realised how truly tiny Lorna was, the girl was barely five foot, whereas she was at least 5'7 the last time she checked. Lorna made her way through the double doors and walked up to the office, with Piper and another few girls following suit.

"Hi Miss Figuerola." Lorna said to the thin woman at the office. "I brought ya all the newbies." She turned to the girls, and whispered. "That's Fig. Watch out for her, she's alright, but ya don't wanna get on her bad side."

"Miss Morello, thank you, now run along, I'll take it from here" The woman said.

Piper panicked momentarily, not wanting to lose the first friend she had made here already, but her anxiety dissipated when Lorna turned to her.

"Hey Piper, what ya lookin so worried for? Don't frown, ya gonna get wrinkles. You'll be having induction for the first few periods, but I'll meet you here in third period to show ya around and take ya to your class, I just gotta get permission first, but I'll come anyway if I don't, alright?"

Piper nodded, relieved as Lorna walked away and she herself was led into an office.

"New students, I'm Mr Mendez, I teach Maths here, now get in line so I can take ID photos for you all. You – blondie – get here."

Piper gulped as she walked in front of the camera, preparing to fix her hair, but was shocked when she heard Mendez call, "Next!"

"Mr Mendez? I wasn't ready-"

"Tough! You, get here!" Piper was pushed out of the way and the moody girl from the bus, Daya, took her place. Great, starting the year with an ugly ID picture on her badge was going to make her so popular.

She brooded for a while, until the photos were finished, and another teacher spoke.

"Hello, I'm Mr Bennett, I teach Art here, now you're all going to line up outside this office, and one at a time you'll go in and have a little chat with Mr Healy, the school counsellor. He also teaches English, you might have him, because he'll give you all the things you need for this year. When you come out, wait at the front desk, then Mr Mendez will hand out ID badges. Understood?" The man said.

Piper nodded, and from the corner of her eye she saw Daya, who was looking the most awake that Piper had ever seen her. But Piper couldn't look for long, because Mr Mendez pushed her into the office, closing the door behind her.

"Hello, I'm Mr Healy, the guidance counsellor here at Litchfield, and you are…?" The white haired man sitting behind the desk said.

"I'm Piper Chapman." Piper replied, taking a seat on the opposite side of the desk.

"Okay…Chapman." Mr Healy muttered, typing away on his computer. A few seconds later, a number of sheets came out of the printer next to Piper. "Take those," he said, as Piper picked up the sheets. "Here you have your schedule, with all your compulsory classes, plus the electives you chose when you applied. You also have a menu for the cafeteria, the behaviour code, a map, and a list of clubs. Try to do some, but not too many. You can read through these later, now take your school planner, that's to your left, do try to use it."

Piper took all of the things and placed them into her bag, zipping it behind her.

"You can come and find me whenever you like, just keep it to during study periods and lunch, because I teach English, so that's where I'll be during class. Oh, and one more thing – please try to avoid getting into a lesbian relationship, not that I have anything against lesbians, just, well, there's too much making out in hallways as it is."

"Oh, um, don't worry Mr Healy, I have a boyfriend." Piper hastily responded, but she couldn't help remembering Alex, and then she smirked, recalling how her mother had probably sent her here to 'cure' her apparent lesbianism. Well, that had backfired majorly.

"Good to hear," smiled Mr Healy. "I'll see you around, Chapman."

Piper left the office and sat on one of the benches in the hallway, looking though the sheets she had been given. When everyone was finished with Mr Healy, Mr Bennett and Mr Mendez took the new students into another room, and proceeded to talk to them about all the rules of the school, and all the necessary information that Piper was sure wasn't really necessary. The talk seemed to drag on forever, and indeed, two periods had passed by the time the teachers had announced that it was time for everyone to go.

"Now, go outside, where you'll find some students, for each of you I've asked a student in your year to show you around the school during third period. Then it will be lunch, after which you will go to the rest of your classes as shown on your schedule." Mr Bennett said, leading the students out of the room and into the hallway. Piper cast her eyes around, looking for Lorna, and was relieved to see the small girl standing at the front of the crowd, flipping back her curly brown hair.

"Piper, there ya are, now you come with me, imma give ya a proper tour of this place, show ya all the good places too." Lorna said, smiling. "Come on then."

Piper followed Lorna as she took her around the school, pointing out all of the rooms to Piper. "Hi Miss Jones" she called cheerfully to a thin, blonde haired old woman who was walking past.

"Miss Jones teaches yoga, if ya into all that spiritual stuff and that. It's on your clubs list if ya wanna do it, hey, lemme see your schedule, see if we got any classes together."

Piper obliged, pulling out her schedule and beginning to read.

"I've got AP History with Mrs Fischer _"

"Ah, ya see, I'm not too smart, only AP class I do is drama, so I ain't gonna be with ya, unless you're doing drama?"

Piper shook her head.

"Ah, shame, I love drama. We're doing West Side Story for the play this year, I'm being Maria, I just love acting, ya should come see the production, I'll get ya tickets, and good seats as well." Lorna said.

"Oh great, you must be really good then." Piper smiled, hoping Lorna did want to be her friend. "So I've got English with Healy _"

Lorna nodded. "Ah, there we go, me too, Healy's alright, pretty strict though, you get a lotta homework. Others?"

"AP Algebra with Mr Mendez, AP Human Geography with Mrs Bell, Chemistry with Mr O'Neill, and I picked Shop with Mr Luschek "

Lorna shook her head. "My best friend, Nicky, does Shop, I'll tell her to look out for you, that's when she's not cutting class to do heroin, that is."

Piper gasped slightly. "Um…Lorna, you don't do drugs, do you?"

Lorna laughed in response. "Nah, don't worry, I don't personally, but Nicky's nice, she'll look after you."

Piper smiled, relieved, and then continued. "Gym with Mrs Maxwell, and Spanish with Mrs Diaz"

Lorna nodded. "Okay, I'm with you there, you look smart, you can help me, I'm a bit of a dunce, I only did Spanish because of West Side Story, and because I was crap at everythin' else. What clubs ya thinkin' of?"

"Um, I'm gonna try out for the track team, maybe cheerleading, and yearbook." Piper announced.

"I do yearbook, good choice, I do school production and glee club too, but I'm guessin' ya don't like singing much?"

Piper laughed, nodding. Maybe she was going to make some friends here.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

By the time the tour had finished, the lunch bell had long gone, so Lorna hastily dragged Piper through the swinging double doors of the cafeteria and into the lunch queue. Piper hardly had time to stop and think before a tray, filled with food which she had no intention of eating, was shoved at her.

"Erm, excuse me, what are the other options?" Piper said nervously to the woman standing behind the counter, who looked rather intimidating with her fiery red hair and nails.

"You get what you're given, tough." The woman replied in a thick Russian accent, gesturing irritably towards Piper. "Move along and stop wasting my time."

"Awh, come on Red, she's a newbie, give her a break." Interjected Lorna, before turning to Piper and whispering; "That's Mrs Rezkinov. She's the Home Ec teacher and head chef, but we all just call her Red. I'm one of her group see, ya know, her favourites, so keep on her good side and she'll give ya all the good stuff, see."

Piper nodded, slightly in awe as she moved along and watched Lorna talk to Red, which resulted in Lorna being given a waffle and yoghurt, in addition to the disgusting slop, which Piper decided did not even remotely resemble a stew.

"See, I told ya she gives you the good stuff if you're one of her 'daughters'" Lorna said to Piper, leading her to a table which was already occupied by six other girls and sitting down. "Guys, this is Piper, it's her first day, so be nice. Piper, this is Mercy," She gestured towards a girl with dark brown hair in a ponytail, who was furiously kissing another girl, who had blonde hair in braids, "Tricia – um, as ya can see, they're dating, and this is Gina," A skinny girl with short brown hair nodded at Piper, "Norma," A girl with brown hair and a fringe looked up. "She don't do much talkin', don't take it personally, alright. Now this is Boo." She pointed to a butch looking girl with short black hair shaved on one side. Boo looked up at Piper before making a small noise of approval and turning her attention back to her food. "And this here is Nicky, my best friend." Lorna said, lying her head on the shoulder of a girl with a wild dirty blonde mop and beginning to shovel food into her mouth like there was no tomorrow.

"Hey newbie, Lorna here tells me that you're in my shop class? Follow me kid, I'll show you the ropes." Said Nicky, who was now playing with Lorna's hair in a way that Piper thought would indicate a romantic relationship, if Lorna hadn't been waffling on about her boyfriend throughout the bus journey.

"No! Don't follow Nicky; ya'll just get in trouble!" Lorna said playfully, pretending to punch Nicky. "She just got out of internal isolation a week ago for telling Mr Mendez to kiss her ass, wouldn't want ya to follow her example."

Nicky pouted at Lorna, feigning annoyance.

"Oh, so, you two, you're close?" Piper said, stirring the repulsive food around on her plate, hoping that it would disappear. She was definitely taking a bagged lunch tomorrow, there was no way she was eating this.

"Thick as thieves." Said Tricia, who had managed to prise herself away from her girlfriend for just long enough to talk to Piper. "Ever since Lorna got here at the start of sophomore year, they just hit it off, a real Thelma and Louise. They say they're 'just friends', but we all know its 'friends with benefits'."

"Oi!" said Lorna, pulling a face at Tricia, as Nicky threw a bit of whatever the food was meant to be at Tricia. "You know I got Christopher, I ain't gonna cheat on him, especially not with my best friend."

At this moment, 'Red' walked up to the table, her apron pockets bulging.

"Hey mommy" Nicky said, holding out her hands.

"She's your mom?" Piper said in a mixture of amusement and disbelief.

"Maternal figurehead. She's more of a mom to me than my real mom ever will be." Nicky responded, as Red produced yoghurts from her apron pocket and distributed them around the table to a chorus of 'thank you's'.

"Man, this is disgusting." Piper whispered to Gina, noticing that Gina hadn't eaten much either. She stopped, realising that everyone at the table was glaring at her pointedly, and if Red had looked scary before, she looked pretty damn terrifying now.

"Red runs the kitchen." Nicky said to Piper, looking irritated.

"Shit, I'm so so sorry!" Piper said apologetically, addressing everyone at the table, but Red in particular.

Red strode towards Piper, who cowered slightly, afraid of getting into trouble on her first day. "Honey, I know you just got here, so you don't know what's what. Well, I'm gonna tell you. You don't like the food? It's no problem, you'll just have to get used to it because at Litchfield we don't bring bagged lunches." Red said coldly to Piper, before patting Lorna on the shoulder and walking away.

"Holy shit, that was an epic fuck up." Nicky said to Piper.

"Oh my god, I'm so so so sorry!" Piper gushed, not wanting to lose the few friends she had made. "I know you're like her 'daughters', I must have offended you all too, I'm so sorry, I can't believe myself!"

Lorna, who was shovelling the food into her mouth like she had never eaten before, looked at Piper, "Awh, honey, well we all forgive you, but ya'd better do somethin' for Red, ya know, to make it up to her. Now if you ain't gonna eat that, give it here, I'm starving."

Piper smiled, relieved to be rid of the offending food, and pushed her tray towards Lorna. The girl might be tiny, but she certainly had an astounding appetite, and began to tuck into Piper's food after finishing her own. _At least they forgave me,_ she thought. _Now I just need to figure out a way to make it up to Red, and not get in any more trouble, I don't want a bad reputation._

Piper pulled out her schedule, looking at her next two classes, which were Shop and Chemistry, respectively.

"Hey guys, who here does Shop and Chemistry?" She asked nervously, not wanting to be alone on her first day.

"Me and Tricia are in shop with you." Nicky mumbled through a mouthful of food, which could have either been Lorna's or her own for all Piper knew. "Chemistry you got Tricia and Mercy."

"Thanks," Piper replied as everyone stood up and began to dispose of their leftovers.

"Now you go with Nicky, I've got Drama now and Biology after, so I won't see you again." Lorna said kindly to Piper. "Pass me your phone."

Piper obliged, and Lorna started to type in some numbers, before handing the phone back to Piper. "Now you can text me tonight, you'll find my contact. I'll give your number out to some people you might wanna know when you do, alright. Have fun!" Lorna skipped off to Drama.

Nicky laughed, watching her go with a sort of fondness, before beckoning to Piper and Tricia. "Come on then, let's go fuck shit up with Luschek."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Nicky waltzed into the shop classroom at least ten minutes after the bell had gone, with Piper anxiously trailing behind her.

"Nicky, we're _really_ late, and I have no idea where Tricia's gone, we're all gonna get detention!" Piper exclaimed.

"Relax newbie, look, Luschek doesn't care what the fuck you do so long as you look like you're working, and he's not even here yet anyway, he's always late. As for Tricia, she'll be skipping to make out with Mercy or something, so don't sweat it, alright." Nicky replied, leading Piper to a workbench.

"Okay, but I don't have anything to work on." Piper said, still feeling nervous. At her old school, this would never be tolerated, and she would be in a lot of trouble, but at Litchfield no-one seemed to care that she was so late.

At that exact moment, a balding, beer-bellied man walked into the classroom. His shirt was undone and he looked as if he had just woken up. "Right class," he slurred lazily, taking his seat at the front desk. "Tool cupboard is open, get your stuff and work, I'm gonna sleep so don't disturb me unless it's really important."

"Is he… _drunk_?" Piper whispered to Nicky in shock.

"Probably." Nicky responded. "Half the time he's drunk or hungover, and the other half he's high. How he's employed here I have no idea." She walked over to a counter and returned with a number of tools, which she laid on the workbench.

Piper looked around, and saw that everyone was occupied with their projects. Surely this was important, the man hadn't even taken roll call and probably wasn't even aware of her presence in the classroom, let alone the fact that she was new.

"Um, Mr Luschek?" she called, walking up to the desk. "I'm Piper Chapman, I'm new today, so I don't have a project to do."

Mr Luschek lifted his head wearily from the desk and glared at Piper. "I don't fucking care if you're new or not, now get a book and choose a project, then shut up and leave me alone." He said in an annoyed tone, before collapsing back on to the desk.

Piper returned to the bench quickly and turned to Nicky. "He _swore_ at me!" She said, horrified. "I'm sure that's not allowed, should I report it to Mrs Figuerola?"

Nicky laughed loudly, before replying, "It's no big deal kiddo, look, Fig won't care, and that's if she actually believes you. Luschek's alright, you can do whatever you want and you automatically get an A at the end of the semester, because he never bothers to actually check our projects so long as we have something to show when the principal comes in, alright? Now go over there and get a book, you'll find some ideas there."

Piper shook her head in disbelief, before doing as Luschek and Nicky had suggested. Flipping through the pages of the book, she found a project that seemed interesting. "I'm going to make a lamp." She declared, before scrunching her brow. "Hang on…are we allowed to do that, I mean with electricals and all. I don't see any protective wear around here…and we definitely aren't being supervised." She gestured towards Luschek, who was now sound asleep and snoring heavily.

"Goggles and aprons over there, but no-one really bothers with them." Nicky said, hammering away at whatever her project was supposed to be. "Like I said, you can do what you want, just try not to get electrocuted please, it's kind of messy when that happens."

After kitting out in all the protective gear she could find, Piper began to build the base for her lamp. This was nothing like shop at her old school, where the teacher supervised you like a hawk, and you were definitely not allowed to make anything that involved electricity. Just then, she heard a loud bang from the back of the classroom, and looked frantically at Luschek, who was somehow still fast asleep.

"Oh my god!" she said to Nicky. "This is so unsafe! I think that girl just made a gun!"

Nicky just laughed in response. "Kid, you've got a lot to learn about Litchfield."

Piper couldn't help but agree.

After the rather horrifying Shop class, Nicky hurried off to find Lorna, so Piper was left alone. She had originally planned to walk to Chemistry with Tricia, but seeing as the girl hadn't even bothered to make an appearance in shop, Piper had to navigate the school on her own. By pure luck she managed to find the right classroom and arrive there on time. Walking into the room she saw Tricia and Mercy together at a bench, furiously making out once again. Glad to see some people she knew, Piper walked over to the bench, which was meant to be occupied by four people, leaving an empty seat next to her. Piper sighed, hoping someone would come and sit next to her; after all, it would be extremely awkward for the teacher to have to be her lab partner for the semester.

"Hey you two, knock it off, it's not as if you haven't had the whole of fourth period to make out." Piper said jokingly to Tricia and Mercy. "Who sits here?"

"Oh, no-one," Mercy responded. "I'm sure Mr O'Neill will put someone there." She continued, as Mr O'Neill himself emerged from the store cupboard.

"Right." He addressed the class. "I'm taking no nonsense or inappropriate behaviour this year, there will be consequences for anyone who doesn't follow my rules. Now, Miss Washington, will you please hand out the textbooks."

A slim girl with shaved black hair stood up and began distributing the textbooks. Piper was relieved that this teacher actually seemed to take teaching seriously, compared to so-laid-back-he's-horizontal Mr Luschek.

"Right, please turn to page 5 and read the text before answering the questions." Mr O'Neill instructed. "When you're done, you can begin the practical, all the instructions are in the textbook, work in pairs. If you don't understand anything, please come over to me. And like I said, no stupid behaviour or you will be in detention, understood?"

"Mr O'Neill," Piper put her hand up. "Sorry to bother you, but I don't have a lab partner." She blushed in embarrassment.

"Oh, you must be the new girl, Piper Chapman?" Piper nodded. "I see, well actually there's meant to be another new girl, I don't know where she's gotten to, she might be lost. When she turns up, you two can work together, okay."

"Thank you." Piper said, relieved, and began to do the work; luckily she had taken Chemistry in junior year, so it wasn't too difficult for her. She soon became absorbed in the questions, and Tricia and Mercy began to kiss again, so it wasn't a surprise that none of the three noticed when the classroom door opened and the aforementioned new girl walked in, or indeed when Mr O'Neill began to talk to her and assign her a seat.

In fact, it wasn't until the girl sat down at the end of the bench that Piper became aware of her presence. Piper turned around to see who her new lab partner would be…

"Maybe this is a bad time to say hi, huh?" The girl said to Piper.

Upon seeing Alex Vause, the only thing Piper could think to do was to scream.

."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Piper boarded the school bus, sighing. Chemistry had been nothing short of well, a disaster. After her little outburst, Mr O'Neill had been quite mad, and made her work in silence at the front, not that she was upset about that, at least it meant she was away from Alex. She turned to the driver, expecting to see Lorna, but was surprised to see a girl with long, straggly brown hair and barely any teeth looking back at her.

"Oi, what you looking at?" The girl yelled rudely at Piper.

"Um, nothing, sorry, I was just expecting Lorna to be driving." Piper said anxiously.

"Oh, well, your little friend drives mornings, and I drive afternoons, alright. I'm Pennsatucky, head of the Christian Union; you should join and receive eternal redemption!" Pennsatucky responded loudly, before turning the key in the ignition and setting off.

"I…erm...I'll think about it." Piper replied. Even though she had no intention of doing so, she didn't want to aggravate the girl further. For the rest of the bus journey, she stared blankly out of the window in a state of panic. Why was Alex at Litchfield? She had moved schools to get away from the girl, goddamn it. And now Alex was back, and in her Chemistry class, and probably more of her classes, come to think of it. This was terrible; there was no escaping the girl…

Piper was so lost in thought that she almost missed her stop, only noticing that the journey was over when she saw Daya leaving. She hastily ran off the bus and sprinted home as quickly as possible, knowing she needed to call Larry about this huge problem. The minute she got home, she ran up to her bedroom and pulled her phone out of her pocket. She began to dial Larry's number, when an alert came up on the screen, showing her that she had a new message from a contact saved as 'Lorna' followed by a series of emojis, including the unicorn, crown, princess, sparkly heart and music notes. She smirked, remembering how Lorna had taken her phone at lunch, and opened the message.

Lorna: Hi, how was your first day? Xxxxxx

Piper laughed, as Lorna's message included a series of kisses and emojis which took up more space than the actual message itself.

Piper: Good, thanks, but in my Chemistry class I saw my psycho ex-girlfriend from my old school! I think she's moved schools to stalk me! Xx

Lorna: Oh my god! Wait, I'll add you to our group chat, everyone needs to know this! Xxxxxx

Sure enough, a few minutes later Piper was added to a group chat consisting of her, then Lorna, whose contact name was saved as Rihanna, someone called Queen Dyke, who she assumed was Boo, Tricia, Mercy and someone called Sexual Steve Jobs, who turned out to be Nicky. She began to explain the situation with Alex, leaving out all the details about drugs and things, even though she was now fairly sure Nicky was an addict.

Sexual Steve Jobs: Wait, you used to be a lesbian?!

Piper: I thought I was...but now I think I'm straight…or bisexual? Idk, I mean, I have a boyfriend, and there is no way we're rekindling our romance!

Rihanna: Sure… xxx

Queen Dyke: 'I'm straight', yeah right, no-one here is straight, not even Lorna here, she's a raging bisexual, even if she won't admit it.

Tricia: You've joined a cult of lesbianism, sorry hun

Piper: My mum will be so happy, fairly sure I moved schools because of my lesbian relationship with Alex, haha.

They continued to chat for a while, until gradually everyone left, Nicky to do whatever she was going to do, which didn't sound a lot like homework, Boo to actually do some homework, Tricia and Mercy to go on a date, and Lorna to go to her drama class. This just left Piper, who decided that maybe she should start on the Chemistry homework, seeing as she had already made a bad reputation for herself in the class by shrieking. By the time she was finished, it was at least five pm, so Piper decided to go on a run, after all, she had gym class tomorrow, and she didn't want to disgrace herself completely.

She wriggled out of her awful school uniform and into a set of workout clothes, which Larry had bought her from PINK as a birthday present…oh, wait, Larry, she was meant to ring him. But suddenly she didn't feel a need to call him anymore; after all, she had gotten all of her feelings about Alex off her chest in the 'Princesses of the World' group chat, which she was fairly sure Lorna had christened. She'd also got at least twenty Facebook friend requests and Instagram follows, and had given out her snapchat to all of her friends, so at least she was making a social circle for herself without Alex, right? Anyway, she didn't want to cause Larry any worry, maybe it was best if she just didn't tell him, after all, Alex wasn't even going to be a part of her life.

Piper contemplated these thoughts whilst out running, and an hour later she returned to her house, sweaty and exhausted, so she took a shower and changed into her pyjamas, and scrolled lazily though her Instagram feed, waiting for dinner. She logged into snapchat, and sent some silly selfies to Nicky, Boo and Lorna, hoping that she could start some streaks with them, and some selfies to Polly and Larry, she was quite proud of her streaks with them, both of which were over 100.

At half seven, Piper's mom called her for dinner, and started quizzing her all about her first day at Litchfield. Piper fed her mom everything she wanted to hear, but couldn't resist rubbing the fact that the school was full of lesbians in her mom's face.

"You do know that the majority of people at Litchfield are lesbians, right?" Piper said though a mouthful of spaghetti; glad to finally eat something that tasted good after the awful school lunch.

"I beg your pardon, darling?" Her mother replied quizzically.

"You heard me right, in fact, the counsellor even told me to avoid lesbian relationships, and that girls made out in the hallway all the time." Piper responded.

"Nonsense, I'm sure that's a huge over exaggeration, you just stay away from that and with Larry, and you'll get lesbians in any school." Her mom said, perhaps more for her own reassurance than Piper's.

"Haha, mom, I bet this is exactly what you didn't want!" Piper's younger brother, Cal, said. He was a sophomore, at Piper's old high school, which further reinforced the idea that Piper had only been moved to Litchfield to avoid Alex.

"Now you, be quiet, this isn't a conversation for the dinner table." Piper's father said sternly, and the rest of the meal was eaten in silence. Later, Piper spent the rest of the evening snapchatting back and forth with Polly, of course leaving out all the information about Alex, and then she lay in bed, contemplating the day's events. She didn't think her parents were homophobic, exactly, but she couldn't imagine that they'd approve of the majority of her new friends being lesbians, perhaps with the exception of Lorna.

Despite all this, she managed to fall asleep quite easily, thinking about the next day, her upcoming classes, and the clubs she was going to join. Maybe Litchfield wouldn't be so bad after all.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Piper's first class of the day was gym, which she shared with all of her new friends, along with at least 30 other girls; Litchfield was a pretty huge school after all. She changed into the regulation gym kit, which was possibly even uglier than the beige uniform, and made her way onto the track.

"Everyone, start stretching! Today we are going to run the mile, and I'm expecting a full effort from everyone!" The teacher, Mrs Maxwell, screamed angrily, which made Piper tense a little. Over on the other side of the group, a few girls were cheering and whooping, including Janae and Poussey, the girl who had handed out the textbooks in Chemistry, so she assumed that they were the members of the track team. Indeed, her theory was proven to be correct a few minutes later, when Mrs Maxwell shouted,

"Now get onto the track! Miss Watson, Miss Washington and Miss Ramos, as members of the track team, I'm expecting you all to beat your previous scores from the last meet season! I will also be looking for new girls to come to the track try-outs, so you'd all better run, or else!" She screeched, looking as if her eyeballs might pop out of her head. _God, this woman has no chill_ Piper thought, pulling at her baggy shorts self-consciously.

"I will be timing you all! Anyone who doesn't manage to finish in under 11 minutes, you are a disgrace to Litchfield!" Mrs Maxwell barked loudly, looking pointedly at Boo, who was sniggering at the idea of actually attempting to run the race.

"Oh yeah, because the standards here are so high." Boo shouted back, earning laughter and clapping from the other students.

"MISS BLACK! ONE MORE PEEP FORM YOU AND YOU WILL BE IN DETENTION!" Mrs Maxell shrieked, at a volume Piper didn't even know it was possible for humans to reach. "On your marks, get set, go!"

Janae sprinted out from the line, clearly opening a gap between her and the rest of the runners. She was followed by Poussey, and Maritza Ramos, and then the group of girls who were actually trying to do well, which included Piper. Piper focussed hard for the first 400 metres, before turning her attention to the rest of the runners. Big Boo was trailing at the back along with some other girls, who she remembered were called Taystee, Cindy and Suzanne, as Mrs Maxwell had named them in roll call. None of them looked particularly bothered about running, and were all deep in conversation about something.

Near the back were two other girls, stumbling around and laughing as if they were five years old. "The meth heads," Lorna had said, when the two ran into them whilst Lorna was showing Piper around. "Leanne and Angie, complete wastes of space, but they can be funny." Just in front of the two girls was Pennsatucky, who looked furious about some unknown matter, and then Gina and Norma, who were jogging slowly.

Amongst the large clump of girls, Tricia and Mercy were jogging whilst chatting animatedly, and slightly in front of them Lorna and Nicky were doing the same, yet all four of them managed to maintain a reasonable pace. Piper herself was right at the front of this group, planning to sprint the last lap, when out of the corner of her eye she glimpsed raven hair, and did a double take.

 _Shit_ she thought, turning towards a girl who was unmistakably Alex Vause, the last person she wanted to see.

"Hey Pipes, why so mad yesterday? You do know you can't avoid me forever." Alex said mockingly to Piper, running a little to keep up with Piper's pace.

 _Yes I can_ Piper thought, and increased her speed in an attempt to pull away from Alex.

"Why are you ignoring me? It's rude you know!" Alex panted, unable to keep up with Piper, who again totally ignored her and sprinted off.

Piper ran as fast as she could, determined to get as far away as possible from Alex as possible. She began to close the gap between herself and Maritza, who was in third place behind Poussey. When Maritza noticed Piper, she began to sprint even faster, but Piper was determined and raced with Maritza until the end, flying over the line in joint third place.

"Piper Chapman, very impressive!" Mrs Maxwell congratulated her. "Joint third to the both of you, very good!"

"Hey Taylor Swift, you're not so bad after all." Janae said to Piper, actually looking impressed. "You could make the track team, try-outs are after school, come along."

"Yeah," said Poussey. "Try and beat Maritza here, lazy sod needs some competition."

Maritza responded in fluent Spanish, and Piper was fairly sure that her angry ranting involved some swear words, but Mrs Maxwell, monolingual, was totally oblivious.

"Hey Chapman, not bad huh, guess you're the next big thing now." Nicky said, sidling over to Piper after she and Lorna had tied for 12th place in the run.

"I saw Alex!" Piper whispered urgently to her. "I was running to get away from her!"

"Well you'd better imagine Alex is chasing you tonight then, for the trials! You were pretty damn good, I mean nowhere near Janae, but the girl is superhuman, I swear. You could beat Maritza though, with a bit of training. And as for Alex, I'm sure she'll lay off after a while, don't flatter yourself, you're not that interesting." Nicky smirked.

"You know, when I'm running, I imagine that Pornstache is chasing me, and that Tony from West Side Story is waiting for me at the finish line!" Lorna said dreamily.

"Pornstache?" Piper replied, confused.

Nicky let out a huge laugh. "Mr Mendez. He teaches AP Algebra, for the smartasses like you, and Geometry for me and Lorna. I swear the man is a paedophile; just one look at that dodgy moustache is enough evidence for me."

Piper started laughing hysterically, come to think of it; Pornstache was a very apt name for Mr Mendez. Back in the changing rooms, she walked into the showers, and was mildly horrified to see a huge number of girls using the showers as areas to make out, including Tricia and Mercy, Boo and some random chick, and Nicky, who was eating Lorna out.

"Gross" Piper muttered, turning away. _Turns out Lorna and Nicky really are 'friends with benefits' then, and I really have joined a 'cult of lesbianism'._

"Come on guys; stop making sweet love, and someone show me where AP Human Geography is!" Piper shouted into the shower room.

"God, Taylor Swift, way to kill the mood." Nicky muttered, prising herself away from Lorna. "I'm not even in your fucking class."

 _Great, so now everyone's going to call me Taylor Swift, thanks a lot Janae_. Piper thought angrily, before being led to her next class by Norma.

"T-Swift, what's up?" Boo said, as Piper stormed angrily into the lunch line behind her.

"Alex is fucking stalking me!" Piper responded. "In all of my classes, she was there! She tried to partner up with me in English! I can't deal with this!"

"Chill out, hey, Vause is hot, I don't mind having a piece of her." Boo replied, taking her tray.

"Um, are you Piper Chapman?" One of the lunch ladies pulled Piper out of her angry rant. "Red said she made that special for you."

Turning around, Piper saw a tray which had a sandwich on it, which actually looked appealing compared to whatever was on offer today, which actually looked even worse than the meal the previous day.

"Just for me?! Tell Red that's very kind of her." Piper said happily, making her way to the table at which her friends were sitting, and becoming absorbed in the conversation, until she noticed a string sticking out of her sandwich. Tentatively, she took off the top bun of her sandwich…

And screamed, seeing a bloody tampon on the bun.

"Oh, oh, what did you do?!" Lorna said, looking disgusted.

"She insulted the food in front of Red, remember." Nicky said, sniggering.

"Oh jeez, I don't think you'll be eating for a while." Lorna said, beginning to laugh along.

Piper froze in horror. Things like this were unheard of at her old school…this was horrendous. Surely there must be some rule against this…how vile…

"Put it away!" Boo said, "I'm trying to enjoy my lunch here."

Piper quickly folded her sandwich up into aluminium foil, still totally in shock.

"You gotta figure out how to make things right with Red." Lorna said, not even seeming to share the horror that Piper felt, was this sort of thing normal here?!

"Um…um…excuse me…" Piper stuttered, pushing back her chair and running off.

"Hey, hey, don't forget, you gotta bus your tray." Lorna shouted after her.

"Where's she going with that tray? Can't take them out of here!" Mercy said, laughing.

"Yeah, she'll figure it out, poor Blondie has no idea how things work here." Nicky replied.

Piper threw her tray in the garbage, ignoring the protest of the angry lunch lady who was watching the door, and fled from the cafeteria.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

 **A/N – I thought I'd just do a little key of the equivalent of things in OITNB to how they will be in my story, so: A shot = Detention The SHU = Isolation Being sent to Max = Sent to Juvenile Detention Showers = either Gym locker room or restroom Greenhouse = School gardens Alarm = Lockdown drill If I can think of any more I will add them in, hope you are enjoying the story so far!**

"Mr Healy! I have to go to another school, a different one! You have to move me, please!" Piper begged Mr Healy. After the shock of finding the _used_ tampon, she had immediately run straight to the counsellor's office in total horror.

"Like this is the Radisson and you don't like your room? Why? Why isn't this the Radisson? Why do you need to be moved? Did someone try to engage with you sexually? Tell me what happened out there." Mr Healy replied.

Piper sat back, and suddenly felt a wave of calm wash over her. _No-one's tried to rape me_. She thought. _In fact, this isn't so bad. I can deal with Alex. I'm just going to have to confront her. And as for Red, I get the feeling that this has happened to other people before, judging by everyone's reactions. I'm sure I can make it up to her, I bet other people have. It would be weird to tell a male teacher anyway. You know what; I'm going to stand my ground. I can sort things out._

"It's fine." Piper said calmly. "I just freaked out. I'll be fine."

"I'm sure you will, now hurry along, you'll be late for your next class." Mr Healy said benevolently.

Piper hastily made her way to her next class, Spanish with Mrs Diaz. Upon entering, she saw that most of the seats were already taken…except one next to Alex. Of course, this had to happen. Scanning the room, she saw an empty chair in front of the desk occupied by Lorna and Nicky, next to Gina. _Thank god_ she thought, racing over to take the seat.

"Um, that one's broke." Said Gina, looking apologetic, and sure enough, when Piper looked, the chair was in fact broken.

"That's no problem." Piper replied, staring straight at Alex, who was clearly enjoying this debacle.

Throughout the duration of the class, Piper's chair kept squeaking and wobbling annoyingly, but she just put up with it, in her mind anything would be better than having to spend more time with Alex than was absolutely necessary. This class was stupid anyway, Mrs Diaz didn't even care that Piper was sitting on a broken chair, and only paid attention to a group of girls who could actually speak Spanish, including her own daughter, who turned out to be Daya.

Piper actually thought that it was quite racist that only the Spanish girls got attention, whereas she and the rest of the 'white' girls had to figure everything out themselves. At first, she felt bad having these thoughts, but everyone seemed to move in groups based on their race at Litchfield, and no-one else had a problem acknowledging that.

Every once in a while, Piper turned to look at Alex, who was almost always staring directly at Piper, with that annoying little smirk on her face.

"God, I just want to slap the shit out of her." Piper muttered aggressively.

"Calm it blondie, now what's the word for singer again?" Nicky replied. "Mrs Diaz is a fat lot of help, so I hope you're smart because otherwise Lorna and I have no hope."

Shooting one last death glare at Alex, Piper turned around and spent the rest of the lesson helping Lorna and Nicky with their essays, regardless of the fact that she wasn't even particularly good at Spanish. But it was the best they had, seeing as the actual Spanish teacher only seemed interested in conversing in Spanish with her little group of favourites. _Another rubbish class with a disinterested teacher_ Piper thought. _Mom really did well sending me here._

The rest of the day went by without any trouble, and after school Piper headed to the track try-outs, where she made the team, and was assigned as the new senior 800m runner, along with six other girls who would run the other races.

The minute Piper returned home she immediately picked up her phone and dialled Larry's number. Whilst the phone rang, she constructed a little speech to give to him, making sure she left out any details about Alex. Hopefully, she could get rid of the girl by just ignoring her, and when Alex saw Piper wasn't going to talk to her, perhaps she would go away.

"Hey Pipes, what's up?" Larry said brightly.

"I hate my school!" Piper replied, hoping that she could get some, in her opinion, much-needed sympathy from Larry. "It's so weird…do you know that they have students driving the school bus!"

"Students?!" Larry said in a mixture of shock and confusion.

"Yes - and the Spanish teacher only speaks Spanish in the lesson - and only speaks the Spanish to the Spanish girls who are actually fluent in Spanish!" Piper continued to rant.

"Um okay…so you don't like Spanish either..." Larry hesitantly began, but was cut off by Piper going on another angry tirade.

"And there's this creepy algebra teacher that everyone calls Pornstache and he looks like a child molester and I swear he tried to grab this girl's boob in the hallway today!"

"Okay, that's just plain wrong, you should report that." Larry said firmly, beginning to understand why Piper was so mad.

"No, you see, the school has no sort of justice system! The principal is this woman that everyone calls Fig and she really doesn't care what the teachers do as long as no-one makes a fuss! Like in Shop, we don't even get supervised! One girl made a working gun! We could all die!"

"Piper, are you exaggerating? Because this is some scary shit…I guess the rumours from Litchfield are actually true!"

"No, I'm being honest! Wait…IT GETS WORSE! I'M BEING STARVED BY THE PSYCHO RUSSIAN CHEF LADY! SHE PUT A TAMPON IN MY LUNCH! AND IT WAS USED! USED! AND NO-ONE EVEN THOUGHT THAT WAS BAD! LARRY I AM GOING TO DIE!" Piper was practically screaming at this point.

"Good lord Pipes, look, if, like you say, the teachers don't care, then you need to sort this out the best you can on your own. If it gets really bad, I'm sure your mum will move you back, but try and stick it out, for me, okay? I know you can do this, you're so strong and lovely and brave." Larry said, comforting Piper.

"You know what, thanks Larry. It's not all bad I suppose, I have some friends, and I've made the track team. Plus, I think I have a good idea." Piper replied in a much calmer tone. "I have to go now, I'll see you this weekend, okay."

"Okay love, bye." Larry hung up. Piper immediately opened the 'Princesses of the World' group chat and started to type a message, when she realised that her username in the group had been changed.

Taylor Swift: First thing's first, why the heck is my name Taylor Swift, and who changed it?

Taylor Swift: Secondly, how can I make it up to Red? I don't want to starve forever.

She didn't have to wait long for a response.

Sexual Steve Jobs: Guilty as charged, and to be honest, I can see some definite similarities there. And do something nice for her…I didn't tell you, but she has a bad back…anything you could do for that?

Taylor Swift: Okay, so over summer I took this artisanal soap making class, and I think I could make something for her? Do you think she'll like that?

Rihanna: Yeah…but I would eat a lot before school tomorrow because I can guarantee that you won't be eating until you've given it her xxx

Taylor Swift: Um, okay, well I'll do it as soon as I can, but I don't have any ingredients yet, I'll probably get them tomorrow.

Sexual Steve Jobs: Okay then T-Swift.

Taylor Swift: My name is fucking Piper.

Rihanna: Whatever you say Taylor xx


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Piper's first class of the day was Algebra, in which she spent the majority of the time ignoring Alex and plotting her apology to Red. It would have been relatively easy for her to spend the whole class daydreaming, if the teacher, who everyone referred to as Pornstache, wasn't so damn creepy. One girl took off her jumper, and her shirt came up a little with it, and it was horrifyingly obvious that Pornstache was staring right at her when her bra was exposed. _What a creep_ Piper thought _, I am never asking him to help me with anything, he's probably a rapist._

Later on, she had AP History, which luckily Alex wasn't in, and Mrs Fischer asked her to walk to the Art room to get some paper, which didn't make any sense to Piper, seeing as she was new and didn't know her way around at all. Miraculously, she found the correct room, and walked in, looking for the teacher, who turned out to be Mr Bennett. What she didn't expect to see was him leaning over Daya's work, deep in conversation with the girl. In fact, Piper could have sworn that she saw Daya touch him on the arm. _Okay_ , she thought, _that is weird_. When she coughed loudly to make her presence known, Bennett hastily pulled away, but Piper swore she saw Daya's gaze linger on him for a long while afterwards.

Despite seeing Alex in two of her classes, the rest of the morning proceeded quite smoothly for Piper, that is, until the lunch bell rang, and she remembered that she hasn't done a favour for Red yet. She queued up in the lunch line, worrying about what disgusting concoction she would be given as punishment, but was surprised to be totally skipped over in the line, and when she tried to protest, she was simply shoved out of the line by a group of other girls, all of whom were given the food. Now she was truly being starved.

Piper dejectedly made her way over to the lunch table, preparing to sit and be tortured as she watched her friends consume their food.

"They're not letting me eat." She mumbled quietly, but was totally ignored. However, what she didn't expect was to catch the eye of Alex, who had wandered out of the lunch line and was surveying the cafeteria. To her total horror, Alex began to walk towards the table Piper was sitting at, and for a horrible moment Piper thought that she was going to try and sit down. What she did do, though, was perhaps a hundred times worse.

Alex sashayed over, in that confident way that Piper remembered so well from the time that… _No, you hate her! This is not time for some erotic daydream!_ Piper reminded herself angrily. Their shoulders brushed as Alex leaned over, and dropped a piece of cornbread onto the empty tray in front of Piper, winking and smiling, then walking off to sit at a nearby table. Despite her hunger, Piper was not going to let Alex win, to her, her pride was more important than eating. She rose defiantly from the table, cornbread in hand, and stared Alex right in the eyes as she strode over to the trashcan, looking pointedly at her as she dropped the cornbread right in the trash. All Alex did in response was raise one of her perfectly arched eyebrows… _No; her eyebrows are not 'perfect…'_ and turn her attention back to her food.

"What did ya do that for?" Lorna said, as Piper returned to the table. "I would have eaten it if ya didn't want it; all ya had to do was say."

"It's not like that." Piper muttered, staring blankly at the wall. _I hate her. I hate her. I hate her._ The worst thing was that she couldn't leave lunch until her allotted sitting was over, so she was forced to stay here, totally humiliated and fuming at Alex. Suddenly, Piper was tapped on the shoulder, and she turned around to see Suzanne, the slightly…odd…girl that she had seen in a few of her classes.

"I got you these!" Suzanne said happily, and produced three jalapeno peppers from her blazer pocket, and laid them on the table in front of Piper.

"Erm, thank you?" Piper said, slightly perplexed, although she did appreciate the sentiment…and she was bloody starving. Tentatively, she lifted one of the peppers to her mouth and took a bite…god; it was good to be eating again. However, the pepper was incredibly spicy, and soon tears began to pour out of Piper's eyes as she turned redder and redder. By the time she had finished one of the peppers, she felt as if she would never be able to eat again, and was sure that she had burned off the majority of her taste buds. The whole table was in fits of laughter, with Boo mocking Piper for being 'the whitest of the white girls', but all Piper was focussing on was hoping that Alex hadn't noticed her.

Then suddenly, she had an idea. _The peppers…soap…artisanal lotion…Red!_

"I've got it!" She said, a little louder than necessary.

"Okay then Archimedes, what's your Eureka moment?" Nicky said scornfully.

"Nothing, I just know exactly how I'm going to make it up to Red." Piper replied happily. "This time tomorrow, I'll be eating just like the rest of you."

"What did Crazy Eyes want with you?" Mercy said quizzically.

"Crazy Eyes?"

"Suzanne. The nut job." Mercy replied.

"She just gave me these, that's all." Piper said.

"Okay, just watch out for her, I can guarantee that won't be an isolated incident."

Piper's state of mind improved greatly throughout the afternoon, perhaps due to the fact that she didn't share a single class with Alex. Her last class of the day was English, and she guessed that Mr Healy couldn't be bothered to start the syllabus, because the first thing he announced was,

"Right class, today we are watching the film version of the book we are going to read, The Great Gatsby. Keep the film in your mind, because when we have read the book there will be an assignment set in which you will compare them. Miss Jefferson, please hand out the headphones."

Piper realised that, due to the outdated and poor quality equipment at Litchfield, everyone had to listen to the film through headphones, whilst watching the actual film on the projector. She took her chair to the front of the classroom and sat don, preparing to relax for the best part of an hour. She felt someone pull up a chair next to her, and realised it was Suzanne, or 'Crazy Eyes', as everyone seemed to call her.

As the movie progressed, Piper was suddenly jolted out of her relaxed state when she felt something on her leg. Turning, confused, she was shocked to see Crazy Eyes slowly moving her hand along Piper's leg, and Piper was frozen in shock, as Crazy Eyes moved her hand towards Piper's inner thigh. _Shit_ Piper thought, but she couldn't quell a certain thought that started circulating in the back of her brain. _Imagine if this was Alex. You'd like it then._ And somehow, she managed to let Crazy Eyes fondle her leg for the duration of the class, instead imagining that Alex Vause was sitting right next to her, caressing her just like she always had done. She didn't once think of Larry.


End file.
